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Our Future

I have always had a fascination with scientists and their detail on glacier observations. There is a trend that is becoming well known about glacier ice melting at the polar ice caps. With every passing year, comes more evidence of this snowball effect of global warming.

The first alarming thing that you need to realize is we need a warming trend for many years before large glaciers start melting and in turn causing sea level rises. More details are being discovered between the connection of humans and natural climate changes.

Ben Marzeion and his team used computer simulations to show models of all glaciers on the planet between 1851 and 2010 and how they would react with natural and man-made influences.

“While we keep factors such as solar variability and volcanic eruptions unchanged, we are able to modify land use changes and greenhouse gas emissions in our models,” says Ben Marzeion, who sums up the study: “In our data we find unambiguous evidence of anthropogenic contribution to glacier mass loss.”

The computer simulation determined that between 1851 to 2010, the glacier ice mass loss was only about 25% cause by humans. But, don’t breath a sigh of relief just yet.

The team also found that between 1991 and 2010 that figure increased to two thirds of ice melt caused by humans.This is quite shocking, because it tells us that humans are responsible for 295 billion tons of ice melting in the past two decades.

I love technology and I love what it has helped us achieve in the last 50 years, but I also hate that we are making such an impact on mother nature due to some of our techniques of moving forward as a species.

But, who knows..maybe I’ll love the ocean view from my home in Pennsylvania someday.

First off, HI everyone! It has surely been a long time since I posted anything here. But here I am!

Anyway, I’m here to share my giggly excitement about a simply, cute little “robot”. Some engineers apparently made a little robot out of paper and shrinky dinks. This little guy crawls without any assistance from the engineers!

“Getting a robot to assemble itself autonomously and actually perform a function has been a milestone we’ve been chasing for many years,” said senior author Rob Wood, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The team included engineers and computer scientists from the Wyss Institute, SEAS, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Even though it is so simple, we are going in the right direction into building robots that assemble themselves into workable form. I’d say that is an accomplishment.

Included in the build of this little guy, engineers added a two motors, two batteries, and a micro-controller.

Our world is connected in a vast webbing of information through the internet and in fact, thanks to our technology, we can connect to our spacecrafts like Cassini which is out near Saturn as we speak taking the most beautiful pictures. Just recently, the Earth was seen in one of these breathtaking photos.

The idea of sharing ideas has lead to a broader understanding on an individual level. We have so many resources that have giving people information about our world, scientific theories, and what other people can provide.

The television and radio are great resources to provide information to a large audience and I’d like to note that they have been around much longer than the internet. But, I have to say that the internet is the ultimate in information sharing platforms. Social sites like Facebook and Myspace (back in the day) allowed family and friends miles apart to share their daily lives. People couldn’t do that before social websites became the thing. They just sent photos and letters in the mail and made weekly phone calls. Well, that has changed and will forever be this way (and forever improved, I’m sure!)

YouTube has an infinite amount of videos that allow people to wonder, learn, and be entertained. But, fear not when entering the weird part of the Tube when going through a few “related” videos. Go back, go back!!!

One of my favorite places to hang when surfing at home is Ted (Ideas Worth Spreading). This place is packed full of people with ideas to share with the world. It has changed the way I see things and given me an open mind on what the future holds and what is possible.

Sharing information will never be the same again and will always evolve as long as we are evolving.

3D Printing. Sounds intriguing and everyone seems to be talking about it.

It may seem like a simple idea – but, there is some work required to make the machine print in 3D.

For one, you need to know how to work CAD (computer-aided design) software. This allows the user to design a 3D object on their computer that is then sent to the 3D printer. Once the machine is sent the information, it begins printing the object in layers and in some cases a laser can be used to harden the material.

Once you get that down, just about anything can be printed and it is an amazing concept. 3D printers have so many uses for personal use and businesses alike!

There is even a website full of products made from 3D printers that you can buy! I’m surely going to use this website in the future!

The medical field could definitely benefit from 3D printing. In fact, it has paved the way for the idea of bio-printing. This idea can prevent future deaths due to the infinite waiting list for organ transplants.

Blame the ultrafine particles (UFPs) that apparently spew out of the printer into the air as it is constructing layers of said objects. These UFPs can be inhaled and deposited in the lungs, which at the very least can cause asthma symptoms.

Researchers measured the amount of UFPs let out into the air when a commercial printer (the study doesn’t specify which brands) creates a small plastic item. And the emission rates were high — about 20 billion particles per minute for a 3D printer working with PLA material at a relatively low temp and upwards of 200 billion/minute for those working at higher temps and with other materials.

Despite the fact that these printers may be dangerous, they can still make an awesome Yoda:

Most people go day to day oblivious to the work and research that goes into every digital interaction they partake in. Cell phones, computers, and televisions are the simple examples that physicists helped develop.

I’m sharing this idea with you, because I believe in the words of Theoretical physicistDr. Michio Kaku.

Physics is a large part of our advanced tech world, but imagine what we would be like to people 100 years ago and what will we think of people and technology 100 years from now? That’s what Dr. Kaku talks about in the video below.

One very astounding fact:

Computers are doubling in power every 18 months!

While I believe that advancement through technology as a species is important and one day maybe we will have limited discoveries; We also have to consider that we will have quite a bit more to worry about with more advanced technology available, especially to the general public.

More facts that I absolutely love:

In the future, we could remove the word “tumor” from our language! We could have a 10 year warning before full blown cancer!

Only a handful of genes separate us from the chimp, but we live twice as long as they do. So, scientists will find those genes and we could double our lifespan. Scientists have already doubled the lifespan of other animals – Why not us?

Think about the technology we could harness in the future. We just need to realize our human limits and gain responsibility along with our technological advances.